Tag: Leica

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Photo Walks – getting back into the habit

Centre of Horncastle, and some of the old buildings, Perkins shop and the Horncastle Farmers Club are the two main buildings in the picture. Some people walking and pushing a cycle can be seen.

Last few trips out I have always taken a camera with me, generally the Leica M10. I had gotten out of the habit recently, and its one that I have been trying to get back into.

An old plain brick building in Horncastle dating back to the last century.

When visting Horncastle two weekends ago, I had the trusty M10 and a 35mm lens, but now I think something wider might have been better.

An old thatched town cottage on the way to the old church. Some of the old cobbled street can be seen and past the cottage is the remains of a Roman wall.

Theres some lovely old buildings in the villages and towns of Lincolnshire.

Horncastle town square. Market stalls are being setup.

With the showery weekend we had, my thoughts turned again to a small compact or microfourthirds camera, if I can find one that is weather sealed.

The new Pen comes to mind as a great everyday carry when I don’t want the weight of the Leica or risk it in a downpour.

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Leica Classic Line

Advertising image for the Leica 66mm lens in M mount. There is a picture of the lens with a red stripe across the image saying sold out.

Over the years since inventing 35mm photography, Leica have produced some interesting sometimes limited edition lens. An odd one is the M glass 66mm. Olympus liked their 55mm, and Nikon had a classic 58mm. Leica’s 66mm is an interesting choice of focal length, an in-between choice similar to the 40mm that has become popular recently.

Not sure how many Leica made but most of the uk stockists are sold out.

I am intending to add a 40mm to my collection at some point. Any none standard focal lengths you like?

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Zooms or Primes

Young model in a green dress stood by an apple tree, holding an apple.
Leica M10

I see the argument over zooms or primes has re-emerged on social media. Also a few videos on youtube. It does seem people are making better arguments for each now.

Cariad sat on a stone step by a door. She is wearing a pretty pink dress and wrap. Her hands are cross and she is looking directly into camera.

In the top image a prime was used in the next a standard zoom. The biggest difference between them is the depth of field.

The shooting experience was a little different for each. The prime was small and light but manual focus. The zoom was big and heavy but auto focus. The fixed angle of view from the prime made me think a little more about the composition and the ability to adapt and work fast with the zoom also brought something to the party.

My views have differed over the years, I started primes only, switched to the convenience of a zooms, for Weddings I would take a body with a 24-70mm f/2.8 and another body with 70-200mm f.2.8, and a fast prime for low light evening events.

Studio I have generally stuck with primes.

I generally stick with primes now but occasionally pull a out of the bag when I feel its needed.

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Leica SL3-S Released

This week we saw the release of the new S version of the Leica SL3. The S versions are often seen as a cheaper version of the SL but should be in fact considered a faster more video focused version. Once again we see Leica sticking with 24 megapixels. Like Nikon and the Z6 mark III, it seems to be a sweet spot in the performance stakes.

Topless redhead sat outdoors in an alcove. She has a pink skirt and her arms cover her breasts.
Leica M10, 50mm Summilux and Ivory Flame modeling

I will not bore you with details but it looks a solid release, if your an SL shooter, wanting to get into SL glass, or just want to shoot M glass but do not like a range finder, the SL range of bodies have something for you.

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Southwold Pier

Southwold Pier with Caroline & Timmy

So here we are having fun on the end of Southwold Pier.  In the end I packed very light.  Two Leica bodies, an M4 and a M8, and two lens, an Elmar 24mm and a Summilux 50mm together with spare memory cards, two spare rolls of Kodak Tri-X and the iPad.

The above shot was taken with the M8 and the 24mm.  All processed in Lightroom Mobile on the iPad.  The colour looks a little odd as I used different contrast curves for the red and blue channel plus a little desaturation.  An interesting look I hope you agree.

So far most of my photography today has been with the M4, the light was overcast and constant which made using an old camera without a built in meter very easy.

 

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Post Processing for Print

Lightroom processing for print

With all the adjustments available to us in modern software I decided to do an experiment with the above photo.

First I did a very minimal development.  No lens correction, no noise correction, some sharpening and a slight adjustment for blown highlights and deep shadow, hardly surprising with the high contrast subject matter.

Then a tweak of extra clarity (+15 from what ever I set for the screen), then off to soft proof and print.

Lightroom processing for print-2

The second version was much more aggressive, full lens and perspective correction, heavy noise reduction and then a little slight grain added to make the noise reduction look more natural.  A touch more sharpening then off to soft proof, again extra clarity for the print.

I now had two prints but which was best.  Well time to ask a few people what they thought.

I’ll let you know the results tomorrow.